To feel embarassed/ashamed of what I do for a living?

[Exvagabond]

I'm currently working as a cleaner at £10/hour with an agency in London. I've never cleaned professionally until a few months ago, but I was desperate to find work to support my family.

Whenever someone asks me what I'm doing, I tell them and you can just tell by the look on their face that they don't approve almost as if they feel sorry for me. Why does my job make people uncomfortable?

I dont have to work, my partner supports me but I see it like this;

-My DD (4) gets 30 hours at nursery, socialising with other children and learning what I don't have the time to teach her at home

• I'm bringing money in to the household so that we can put money away for emergencies, a holiday, days out etc.

• I'm putting money in to a private pension

• I'm paying tax

• On top of this I'm a part time student, so I won't do this forever

Why am I scum to some people?

I have massive respect for my cleaners. Your rate is a bit low tbh! I have a young girl whose 21 whose setting up a cleaning business around her 10 month old. I rate her massively

What's wrong with being a cleaner? You don't need to justify or excuse it all all, it's a perfectly acceptable job.

Your poll might turn up some wierd results as you actually asked AIBU to be embarrased or ashamed of what I do - I voted yes as you should not be embarrssed or ashamed of being a cleaner, but not sure from the results that's how most people read the question in the poll.

Pissed me off this! I am a cleaner (my own business) & didn't really think about it. I was a medical secretary before I had my autistic son. I have found lots of people change rolls/get out of the rat race as they get older & do something that they enjoy & makes them their own boss. I wouldn't worry what anyone thinks. A lot of the professional women I clean for don't enjoy their jobs & feel trapped by the money.

OP I used to work as a cleaner and got the same reaction; the little sneer, the unease, people being patronising. I understand.
It's a good job in many ways and one I would potentially go back to in the future as it often enables you to be self employed and your own boss in many ways, which I love. Don't pay any mind to judgy people.

Just smile nicely. If that's their reaction, it says more about them than it does about you.

I've been a cleaner, it was one of the most lucrative jobs I've ever had, (cash!) while fitting in with my children....
people can think what they want, I had you will
have the last laugh

As so many others have said, you should hold your head up high that you do an honest day's work and you're providing essential services. Far, far more essential than, say, some of the marketing and SEO jobs that are so incredibly overpaid, just as an example...

I agree that you should probably be charging a bit more, although it does depend what part of the country you live in. Folk in London don't seem to roll out of bed for anything less than £100 a second, if some of the threads on here can be believed, while where I live, unless you're spending 20% of your life (more like 33% of your waking life) commuting to the nearest big city, £10-15 an hour means you're doing pretty well.

As for the snotty eejits who appear to be looking down on you, that attitude says far more about them than it does about you. After all, people can lose fortunes in the blink of an eye, however secure they might think they are, and no matter how many educational certificates they might have on the wall, they still have to eat, sleep and excrete like the rest of us, ....they'd soon know about it if their environment wasn't clean (I like to point people towards the film Contagion on occasion). And as someone else said, many, many people find they have to leave those high-falutin' roles of theirs as they get older, for health or personal reasons, and do what work they can find. A friend of mine used to call it "cotton wool handcuffs", when you're stuck in a well-paying but utterly miserable job.

Those who clean for a living (including my own sister, when the kids were little - she works in healthcare now) are fantastic: hard-working, resilient, and providing an essential service to society. Kim and Aggie are my heroines to this day!

OP, I'm really sorry you feel this way

As you already said, you are earning an honest wage, paying taxes, setting aside a little pension pot and ultimately having a little bit of extra money to spend on yourself!!

I think you're bloody great.

If the CEO doesn't turn up for a few days, it might affect a few people who need a decision.

If the cleaner doesn't turn up for one day, it affects working environment of every single person in the organisation.

My mum was a cleaner. She worked three different cleaning jobs because she had four daughters and my dad’s income wasn’t brilliant.

She made sure, by saving hard, that we got a week’s holiday every year on the Norfolk Broads.

I was, and still am, more proud of my mum than I can tell you.

She was a fantastic mum and a great role model to me and my sisters.

Hold your head up high! Your daughter will one day be as proud of you as I am of my mum.

It’s anyone who looks down their nose at you who are the scum.

Be very proud. I am happy to clean houses or anything else whether to make ends meet or simply to do what others won’t. I am also related to the Queen by marriage, I have held very senior jobs, I am sought after for news commentary, I grew up in a castle with servants and I have advanced degrees. When some people find out who I am, they won’t let me clean for them anymore because they are embarrassed but they have no need to be. You should never, ever feel less than incredibly resourceful, proud and an example for others to follow.

I don't think people would say you're scum. People who treat others in that way don't sound like the type of people you should want to be associating with. That said, I am often a bit embarrassed in front of my cleaner, she is the one cleaning my toilets after all. It's a strangely intimate and therefore slightly awkward relationship. It's a job I'd hate to do myself, which she would obviously know, given I am paying her to do it.

My first job was a cleaner in an office building. I enjoyed it but some clients would look right through me.

I was asked to cover a week on reception due to holidays and the same clients couldn't be nicer to me!

If anyone treats another person like that it's usually because they have issues with themselves.

You get paid more than my teachers assistant wage. I have a degree. Don't sweat it. You're working and providing for your family

Who makes you feel uncomfortable? If someone told me they were a cleaner I wouldn’t have any judgement for that person....I judge people on who they are and how they act not what they do

*do for a living I mean

When my friend and i started a cleaning business we did one off cleans when people were leaving their property and moving on. On our first job we earned £95 an hour each but even it was £5 an hour it was a great feeling turning a dirty house into a gleaming spotless one

You are working to support yourself, anyone who criticises or looks down on what you do is the one with a problem.
and they are just a snob.
ignore them and be proud of what you do.
What does it matter what a person does to earn a living so long as it is Honest?

If the CEO doesn't turn up for a few days, it might affect a few people who need a decision.

If the cleaner doesn't turn up for one day, it affects working environment of every single person in the organisation.

This. I felt exactly the same way about the place where I used to work. The lowly paid staff at the bottom of the rung were the ones who would be missed, and they were the ones the customers saw and relied on.

You're doing an honest days work, you look after your family and you're a decent human being.

Do not let other people make you feel like garbage. They don't put a roof over your head, food on your table or clothes on your back so their opinion means diddly squat.

@drumandthebass - there is no shame at all in working in a warehouse. I did something similar for two months - and found it far more fun and satisfying than the over 40 years of admin work I've done! I would go back like a shot if I could.

Ignore people I have cleaned in the past and would again if necessary. People would employ a Cleaner no problem but look down at them as its not a job they would do. I work in a breakfast club and as a Mid Day in a school nursery I'm training to be a teaching assistant.

I have immense respect for cleaners - what sort of world would we be living in without them?

Every time I visit the toilet at work or in a public place and a cleaner is there, doing their thing, I always thank them.

I’ve done cleaning in the past, it paid well for part time work and fit in with my DD’s nursery and my studies. I now have a cleaner of my own, I would never treat her like scum. I also know several people who have become very rich from cleaning businesses

I think you just have to rise above it. I was a cleaner when I was at uni. It’s hard work. You are doing many great things and just need to be more self confident.

We have had quite a few cleaners over the years and they are a part of our family. The current lady also cares for the kids - she has known them since they were days old. We help her with her passport and take her to her next job if needed. We’ve advertised her great work locally to get her more. She works 6 days a week probably 12 hrs a day - to have a nice life as she says. She cleans in thigh boots and mini dresses and sings.

She is our friend. You will no doubt be many of these things to your clients too as well as studying and caring for your family.

The people who turn their back on you are not worth knowing. Ignore them. You’re the better person.